I think one thing studies like this miss is that it’s ok to have above average workload(e. g more than 40 hours), as long as you sprinkle in 1-2 weeks complete

I think one thing studies like this miss is that it’s ok to have above average workload(e. g more than 40 hours), as long as you sprinkle in 1-2 weeks complete rest. About 8 years ago I suffered from severe depression and burnout - I quit my job and basically spent 6 months browsing the web and smoking pot. My burnout was caused by overwhelming work without direction and terrible office politics. That is when I discovered that I’m the happiest with bursts of high productivity for 2-3 months with longer than average time off(2-3 weeks). Now I haven’t been working for 2 months and I’m craving that high workload again Edit: Sorry for going on a tangent, but work-life balance has become important to me. What eventually led me out of my stress induced depression was a friend offering me work - it was a couple of levels below what I was doing before, I want from being a supervisor to doing fairly hard labor I had been supervising. It gave me a fresh look at my work life and a couple of years later, I had well surpassed where I had been in my career wise before my breakdown. Another thing: just because you’re working 80+ work weeks, doesn’t mean you can’t have a social life. I met my current girlfriend while working on average 70 hours a week for 12+ months. My point I guess is that these hours/day can be shifting quite a bit. Sometimes you need a maximum of 5 hours per week and sometimes you’re going for 90, and both are OK. We’re all different at different points